Pointlife
In Amsterdam, navigating the canals provides a better means of direction than the streets that are outlayed throughout the area.
Student indulges in Amsterdam culture and scenery over break
The Pointer
jspra793@uwsp.edu
For many University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point students, spring break is a time to relax, catch up on some reading or get ahead in a few classes. But for a small number, the time off gives them a chance to participate in global adventures.
“It’s an entrancing place; it’s easy to fall in love with it,” Jeremiah Eichmann said of his travels.
Eichmann and two of his friends, also UW-SP students, spent the week in Amsterdam catching the sites, gorging on food and socializing with the local Dutch folks.
Airfare came to roughly $600 and their hostel, Meeting Point, was only 18 euros each night. The good exchange rates were beneficial at the time. Their transportation of choice while in the country: biking.
Meeting Point was located “right on the water. It’s in a traditional narrow Dutch house in the gable,” Eichmann said. “I highly recommend it.”
The trio ate at a traditional Dutch restaurant, Haesje Claes, and went to an Animal Collective concert at the Paradiso.
While Amsterdam has been heavily criticized for tolerating certain activities like smoking marijuana and obvious public prostitution areas like the Red Light District, it remains a unique country filled with cultural diversity.
“The reason the Dutch people legalized pot was for control of the situation and they can make the distinction between hard drugs and soft drugs,” Eichmann said.
The Red Light District looks to be diminishing as fewer windows are in operation, he said. “They’re opening the old brothels into artist galleries, boutiques, jewelers and fashion designers.”
The country is a sort of melting pot of different people starting to conform to each others tastes.
“They’re all together as one homogeneous group,” said Eichmann.
His favorite part of the trip was “probably hanging out in a brown café chatting it up with the Dutchies.”
The cafes, some over 400 years old, are known as “brown cafes” for the color of their walls which have been stained by years of tobacco smoke.
“You get a shot of jenever (pronounced yen-ay-ver) and you chase it with a small beer,” Eichmann said. “It’s a very Dutch thing to do. They smile when you take it and say ‘lekker,’ that means ‘delicious’.”
This was his fourth visit to the country and by far the most structured he said. He continues to learn the Dutch language on his own and has been studying German as his major at UW-SP.
“I was thinking, in the future, maybe being a tour guide, but I don’t know,” he said. “I want to get to know the country more intimately to see what makes it tick.”
